Faculty of Translation and Interpreting of the University of Geneva

Introduction

The Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (FTI) is one of the oldest translation and interpreting education and research institutions in the world. It was founded in 1941 by Antoine Velleman as the Ecole d’interprètes de Genève (EIG). When a translation degree was introduced in 1972, it became the École de traduction et d’interprétation (School of Translation and Interpreting - ETI), before adopting its current title – Faculty of Translation and Interpreting – in 2011.

"Mr. Velleman was more than qualified to set up and direct the school, which he predicted would expand rapidly as Switzerland prepared itself for post-war recovery. Furthermore, Geneva, with its tradition of international collaboration, offered plenty of advantages to successfully bring about such a project. Before the Second World War, only one other school of its kind existed – a school that was founded in 1930 in Mannheim by Swiss professor Dr. Charles Glauser and was attached to the University of Heidelberg in 1936."

Initially a part of the Faculty of Humanities, the EIG broke away from the Faculty between 1953-1955 and eventually became an independent institution of the University. Today, the FTI has over a hundred teachers and researchers.

Location

Up until 1946, the school’s administrative offices were located in Antoine Velleman’s office at 5 Avenue Marc-Monnier, then in an apartment at 4 Rue Saint-Victor. Three rooms and the hallway were used for the school, while three other rooms were reserved for administrative purposes. From 1952-1953, the University was renovated and the school’s administrative offices were set up on the former premises of the Physics institute (ground floor). In 1978, the school moved to the Cours Commerciaux de Genève building at 19 Place des Augustins. It then moved to the new Uni Mail building at 40 Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve in 1992.

FTI Programmes

The Faculty offers the following programmes: Bachelor of Arts in Multilingual Communication, Master of Arts in Translation, Master of Arts in Conference Interpreting, Complementary Certificate in Translation. Students make up their language combination based on the languages offered by the Faculty, which are German, English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.

Besides translation and conference interpreting, the programmes offered by the Faculty can also lead to careers in multilingual communication, public relations, the media, public administration, tourism, the court system, language mediation services, education and research.

Exchange programmes

The FTI has agreements with 70 universities in over 20 countries.

Research

In the first few years of its existence, the school was mostly geared towards professional training, but today, it carries out research in a variety of different fields.

Research groups

FTI’s research groups are currently leading projects financed by the European Union and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The Centre for Legal and Institutional Translation Studies (Transius) specializes in legal and institutional translation.

The "Economics, Languages and Education" research group (Observatoire élf) looks into linguistic diversity management.

The Department of Translation Technology (TIM) works with translation technology, speech recognition in language learning, terminology and lexicology.

The Interpreting Department carries out projects on interpreting, cognition and humanitarian aspects of interpreting.

PhD Programme

The FTI has a PhD programme with specializations in:

Continuing education

The FTI offers continuing education degree and certificate programmes in translation studies, translation methodology, translation (financial, legal, technical and literary), writing (active and passive languages), technical writing, computer-assisted translation, terminology and interpreting.

European and international networks

The FTI is a member of a number of European and international networks, including:

Technological innovation

The FTI collaborates with the city of Geneva on technologically innovative projects. BabelDr, a collaboration between the FTI and Geneva's University Hospitals, won the Innogap prize in 2015.